Curious Christian

I always enjoy reading about the different ways God encounters people in their journey. Here is one from a writer named Joe Conti, on his journey from childhood faith, through yoga, into a deeper appreciation for the Christian mysteries. 

In my teens, I left Catholicism to practice esoteric yoga for about fifteen years – eight of them under the direction of a swami (Hindu monk). My goal was to live constantly in the awareness of God’s omnipresence – the divine presence which yoga so beautifully describes as Sat-Chit-Ananda: Existence, Knowledge, Bliss. I was impressed by the mystical, philosophical, and holistic resources I found in the yoga path – and came to experientially discover. As my years of sadhana continued, I came indeed to experience an abiding sense of God’s presence: a first-hand sensing of that peace and joy of which the ancient yogis had sung.

At a certain point I began reading the writings of the Christian mystics (hitherto unknown to me) and works of Catholic metaphysicians – particularly those of Jacques Maritain. I was stunned by the existential and spiritual depths of these works. I had found in yoga a deep magic – but in the intuitions of the Christian mystics I discovered (in a phrase of C.S. Lewis) a “deeper magic still.” The great principle of this sublimity is the Way of Christ – that is, Christ’s recapitulating his Mysteries in us unto intimacy with the Father in this life, and beyond this life to the divine plenitude of beatific vision.

For more of this interview see Holistic Christianity: The Vision of Catholic Mysticism – An Interview with Joe Conti.